


Call and Answer

by ssrhpurgatory



Series: Synchronicity Fractals [2]
Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Airports, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Older Woman/Younger Man, Second Chances, disaster bisexuals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:55:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28988859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssrhpurgatory/pseuds/ssrhpurgatory
Summary: Six months ago, Alexander Hilbert had a one night stand with a woman he was trapped in an airport with, and has been regretting their decision not to exchange contact information with her ever since. Fate must be on his side, though, because he just ran into her again, and this time he's not walking away without a number.One of three potential and non-overlapping sequels to Synchronicity.
Relationships: Alexander Hilbert/Original Female Character
Series: Synchronicity Fractals [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126490





	Call and Answer

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Synchronicity](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28371990) by [ssrhpurgatory](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssrhpurgatory/pseuds/ssrhpurgatory). 



“Sasha? Is that you?”

Alexander looked up from his phone, momentarily discombobulated. The voice had come from somewhere behind him, and it had sounded like... but it couldn’t be, could it?

He whipped his head around to make sure, and was greeted by the sight of Rosemary, who was wearing a short, summery dress in a rich yellow that made her brown skin glow. She beamed at him and settled her carry-on right next to his seat, leaning on the extended handle as she looked him over.

“You look good.”

 _Better now_ , he wanted to answer. Instead, he opted for a smile that felt more like a grimace and a tepid “So do you,” not wanting to be so eager as to frighten her off.

Unfortunately, his current coolness was having exactly the effect he’d hoped to avoid by affecting it. Rosemary’s smile faltered a moment, and then her expression went very sober. “Sorry,” she said, hesitant. “I thought... but this is awkward, isn’t it. I’ll just...” she stood up straight and turned to go, and Alexander found himself reaching out and grabbing blindly for the handle of her carry on.

“Wait,” he said, his voice high and strained in his throat. She jerked to a halt and turned to look back at him. “I was an asshole just now. I am sorry. Come and sit and talk for a moment?”

Rosemary’s face melted into one of those bright and beaming smiles of hers. “All right, fine. I’d make you buy me another apology drink, but I don’t have enough time to finish it before my flight, so you’re off the hook for today.”

“I will simply have to owe you one.” Alexander moved his computer bag from the seat next to him into his lap as she bustled around him with her carry-on in tow. She settled down in the seat at his side with a relieved sounding sigh. “Long day?” he asked.

“Long weekend,” she replied. “And probably for you as well, I imagine.”

“Ah, were you at the conference—“

“On Infectious Disease Epidemiology? Yeah.”

He found himself sighing as well, a regretful sort of sound even to his own ears. “I wish I had known you were going to be there. I would have kept an eye out for you.”

She tilted her head to one side and fixed him with a sharp look. “Would you have?”

“You know I would have.” And then, by an instinct he did not understand, he was compelled to scoop her hand up off the armrest and press a kiss to the back of it.

Rosemary did not resist. Instead, that sharp look she had pierced him with went soft and unfocused, accompanied by a slight parting of her lips and a distinct darkening of her cheeks. When he released her hand, she withdrew it from his with a flattering reluctance. “All right,” she said, her voice very low and raspy, her eyes looking him over again, as if in renewed appreciation. “I suppose I might have done some hunting of my own if I’d known you’d be around.”

The way she said _hunting_ sent a shiver down his spine and left him with a very clear mental image of what she might have done if she _had_ run him to ground. “You were presenting?”

She shook her head. “Not this year. You?”

He shook his head. He was running out of topics that were not _I know it has been more than six months since I last saw you and we are still strangers, but I desperately want to kiss you on that gorgeous mouth of yours again_ where this woman was concerned. “How long until your flight?” he asked instead.

She glanced up at one of the screens overhead. “I should probably head towards my gate in fifteen minutes or so.”

“Mine does not start boarding for another hour. Could I walk you there?” He wanted to spend every moment he could in her presence, if she would let him.

Her teeth sank into her plump lower lip, that outward sign of nervousness that had so entranced him the last time they’d met. It was no less entrancing now. “All right,” she said after a moment, springing back to her feet. “It’ll give us more time to talk.”

But they didn’t talk as the walked to her gate. Instead they simply fell in side-by-side, dawdling their way towards Rosemary’s gate, carry-ons wheeling behind on either side of then, fingers of their free hands interlaced. Her palm was warm and smooth against his, and he found himself wishing he would never have to let go. She glanced his way a few times along the way, as if about to start a conversation, but her eyes darted away almost as quickly every time and no words emerged. Alexander found he was overwhelmed and just as incapable of beginning a conversation himself. He remembered exactly how many times over the past six months he had regretted that decision not to exchange contact information with her—almost every single one, and sometimes more than once a day—and now that she was here at his side once more, it felt like he was back in the dream-like fantasy of that foolhardy night they had spent together.

“Here,” she said, her voice breathless and hoarse as she finally broke the silence between them. She tugged him into the seating area near one of the gates, where some people were already in line for early boarding, a sight that left him feeling urgent.

“Can I—“ he began, just as breathless as she had been, his voice catching in his throat “—that is, would you, ah... could I give you my number? So that if we are ever at the same conference again—“

She held her hand up, a stilling gesture that quieted him immediately. “Yes. Absolutely.” Her attention was on her shoulder bag now, digging through it until it emerged with her phone. “What is it?”

He rattled off his phone number and she programmed it in to her phone in a flash. A moment later, his phone buzzed in his pants pocket, and he pulled it out to find a message that just said _Boo!_ from an unknown number. He unlocked his phone and saved the number, hesitating after putting in her first name. “Is there a last name I should be putting in here?” he asked, trying to sound as if he cared less than he did.

“Epps,” she said, flashing one of those bright smiles up at him. “You?”

He found himself beyond answering. “But you are...” he managed to squeak out after a moment.

“I am?” she prompted, one eyebrow quirking dangerously upwards.

“I, ah, I used some of your work as the foundation for my graduate thesis,” he stammered. His work had gone in a different direction once he had graduated, but that did not change the fact that he had always been in awe of her. He had even met her once before their accidental encounter in the airport at Christmas, though he doubted she remembered it; he had hardly been able to get a full sentence out in her presence, and both of them had changed so much in the years since then that it was no wonder he had not recognized her.

It was less of a wonder that his long-forgotten crush had come roaring back to life with a vengeance now that he knew who she was. Bad enough he had been lusting after the woman; right now he was on the verge of falling to his knees and worshipping her.

“Ah, you’re _that_ Alexander,” she said primly. That dangerous eyebrow quirked a little higher for a moment before settling back into its usual smooth arch, though she did not say anything further. Perhaps she _did_ remember their first meeting... or perhaps she had just read his thesis. She typed something additional into her phone and dropped it back into her bag. And then she tilted her head to one side and considered him. “You’re younger than that hair makes you look.”

And she had to be in her forties, with nearly a decade on him, though he could hardly believe it. “Is that all right?”

She let out a low chuckle that sent his mind some extremely dirty places... and followed it with words that made him realize she’d meant it to. “Takes a younger man to keep up with me these days, anyway,” she said, a little smirk turning the corner of her mouth up.

His mouth went dry. “Does it?”

“Assuming you _want_ to keep up with me.” She frowned up at him, a little crease between her eyebrows, and added, very seriously, “Do you?”

He nodded. And then he bent carefully over her, giving her the opportunity to move away if she didn’t want to be kissed.

She didn’t move away. Her hand came up and cupped his jaw as they kissed, her thumb tracing lazily along his cheekbone. When he eventually pulled away, she let out a contented sigh, and stood on her tiptoes to brush another brief kiss to his lips. And then, when she sank back down into her heels, she tapped him on the chest and frowned sternly up at him. “This isn’t going to be an exclusive thing, you hear? You’re free to see other people. Just let me know if you want to break it off.”

The words made Alexander’s heart sink a little, but he nodded. Having a brief liaison at the next conference they both happened to be at would be better than the nothing of the past six months, so he would take what he could get. “Understood. And the same goes for you.”

Rosemary blinked, as if he had startled her with those words. “Definitely,” she said, sounding as if she was struggling to sound certain about it. And then she glanced past his shoulder. “Looks like boarding has started. I’ll see you around?” she added, her voice brisk and businesslike now.

“See you around.” He watched until she was on the plane and out of sight, resisting the urge to join her in line until she boarded and trying to pretend he didn’t feel as forlorn as he had the last time they had parted. After all, this was not like last time.

Because this time he knew he would see her again.

Rosemary went one week before she finally caved in and texted Alexander. She was mildly ashamed to admit exactly how much willpower it had taken her to wait that one week; seeing him again had brought what she had hoped was only a brief infatuation with a chance-met stranger roaring back to full strength. Her mind even wandered to him from time to time while she was at work, which was completely out of character for her.

But it seemed she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She even thought about him enough to remember the _real_ first time they’d met. He’d been a stammering, blushing grad student who had barely been able to get two words out when his thesis advisor had introduced him to her at a conference. It probably didn’t speak well of her that she’d mostly ignored him after that initial introduction, but she had thought at the time that he’d appreciated it; he had disappeared from her vicinity almost immediately, and she hadn’t caught sight of him for the rest of the weekend.

The decade since then had wrought changes on them both. Rosemary had given up on long hair—natural hair was _such_ a pain to maintain at that length, and she was a busy woman—and Alexander…

Well. He’d grown up, that was all. Not that he hadn’t been grown before, but he seemed more comfortable in his body now than he had back then, and that mattered. It had certainly made her look at him like a man to be appreciated these two times she’d run into him in the airport, rather than a nice boy she’d been too busy to pay much attention to back when they’d first been introduced.

And damn if it wasn’t shallow of her, but she wanted to get to know the man he’d become a good deal better than she currently did. And if he happened to fall into her bed a few more times along the way… well, she wouldn’t say _no_.

 ** _I finally remembered where I first met you,_** was her first foray, a text sent at the end of a long day where she hadn’t been able to keep him out of her mind.

His response was almost immediate: **_Oh NO._**

**_Oh, it wasn’t that bad. You were cute._ **

**_I was terrified of you._** There was a moment where three dots flashed on the screen as he composed his next text. **_Not terrified. In awe. You were… awesome, in the full sense of the word. I could barely look at you._**

Rosemary blushed. **_What flattery,_ **she teased, grateful that he couldn’t see the effect his words had really had on her.

**_You think so? I spent next few years worried I had insulted you horribly._ **

**_Is that why you never came to say hi to me again?_ **

**_I was too embarrassed to face you._ **

**_Oh, poor lamb. If it helps, all I remembered was that you seemed nice enough. Awkward, but nice._ **

**_And now?_ **

She nibbled her lower lip as she responded. **_And now you’ve got to know that I think you’re hot stuff._**

And she really did, not just physically. She’d taken the opportunity to see what he’d been up to over the past decade, and he’d been part of some really interesting retrovirus research initiatives. Not at all related to his thesis, but exciting all the same, with more than a few projects under his belt that she’d love to pick his brain about.

 ** _What flattery, indeed_. **came his response, and she could just imagine it in that dry voice he had used to tease her.

She didn’t know how to continue the conversation after that—keep flirting with him, or make it clear that she wasn’t just talking about how she thought he looked?—so she didn’t continue it at all. Fortunately, he either didn’t mind or didn’t find it as awkward as she had; a week and a half later, he texted her asking if she’d be willing to give him some input on something he was currently working on. She had jumped on the chance, and they’d had a perfectly sensible and adult conversation about work that somehow managed to last three hours and solve a couple of the niggling little issues she had been trying to work out with a project of her own.

That set the tone for their interactions going forward. Professional, yes, but wide-ranging beyond whatever reason they’d ostensibly started the call for, with the social niceties usually kept to a brisk “and how are you?” at the start of the call, the pair of them ignoring the real reason they’d exchanged numbers by unspoken mutual agreement, at least until the next conference.

But finally, it happened. “Are you going to be in LA this weekend?” Alexander asked casually at the end of one of their little chats.

“I am. Presenting a paper and everything,” she said, trying to keep her voice calm. “I take it you’ll be around?”

“Yes.” He sighed. “I was wondering…” But he trailed off before he could finish the sentence, leaving a heavy silence behind.

“I’m still interested in spending some time together. If that’s what you were wondering,” she hastened to supply into the silence he had provided. “I’ll even have my own condoms on hand this time.”

“Ah. Right. Good,” he stammered.

“So that’s a yes, you’d like to?” she prompted.

“Yes. I… yes. Very much so.” He chuckled. “Ah, and here you are, making me all tongue-tied again. I will see you again and be unable to speak.”

“I’m sure we can find better uses for your tongue, anyway.”

He cursed in Russian and let out another laugh. “Oh, you are trouble.”

“I’ve been told I’m quite the handful, yes.”

“Mm, that too,” he murmured, his voice very low and raspy, clearly imagining what bits of her he would like to get his hands on.

“Right.” Her own voice came out as a breathless squeak. “Well, it’s awfully late and I need to get to bed. Goodnight!”

Rosemary hung up hastily after his quiet goodnight and pressed a hand to her chest, where her heart felt as if it were pounding frantically against the inside of her rib cage in an attempt at escape. What on earth had that been? She never got flustered when flirting with someone, but here she was, feeling all… all _fluttery_ at the thought of seeing Alexander again. Fluttery and…

Well, _fuck_.

She was too damn old to fall in love, and with a man almost a decade her junior to boot. It was complete and utter nonsense.

Complete and utter nonsense that she couldn’t quite deny, no matter how much she cursed herself out. She’d been so damn _careful_ to not touch on anything _too_ personal during their little chats, careful to keep him at a careful distance that apparently hadn’t been far enough. And now here she was, in love with the damn man despite her caution, when she’d been trying to think of the weekend ahead of her as just a bit of fun.

Well, she had always been a good actor. She was pretty certain she could keep herself from saying anything _too_ silly around Alexander, because she simply did _not_ have the time to be in love with someone. And this would wear off in time.

Wouldn’t it?

No, Rosemary was forced to admit a few days later, it definitely wouldn’t. She had been standing in the lobby, just checked in, and a soft touch on her arm had alerted her to Alexander’s presence, and she had turned and seen him there, and…

…and she’d made a damn fool out of herself by throwing herself into his arms and kissing him senseless. Right out there in the open, in front of a curious audience of their peers and probably a coworker or two to boot, to hoots and hollers and a cheeky “Invite me to the wedding then, Rosie!” that she’d flipped off the air in the direction of, though she hadn’t seen who had yelled it.

And then it had been the pair of them stumbling towards the elevators with her luggage in tow, barely able to keep their hands off one other, succumbing entirely once they were in her hotel room with the door securely shut behind them. One fast and frantic fuck later, and they were cuddled side-by-side in the hotel bed, breathing hard, with her, at least, contemplating round two.

“I have an interview with a representative from your company this weekend,” Alexander said without preamble, his nervous voice shattering the silence. “And with a few other companies in the area.”

She let out an awkward crack of laughter. “That’s awfully forward of you.”

“Is it?” He frowned and studied her over the top of his glasses, now well-smudged.

“No,” she admitted. “Though you seem to have realized it a damn sight sooner than I did.”

That frown dug itself deeper. “Realized what?”

“That I seem to have fallen in love with you, you infuriating man.”

His frown melted into a warm smile, and he pressed an affectionate kiss to the curve of her shoulder. “Good.”

“Good? Is that all you’re going to say? Why, I ought to kick you right out of here. _Without_ your pa—“

He shut her up with a hot and lingering kiss to her mouth, followed by a second just for good measure. “Good, because I love you too,” he murmured, his breath still hot against her lips.

“Well, good,” she responded, her voice trembling. “Though I don’t know _how_ we’ll make it work, you know.”

“We will.” He stilled her trembling with another kiss, with his certainty that it would all work out this time.

And maybe it would.


End file.
